Saturday in Brazil

Minardus

1st session: we were last as usual.

POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT TIRE TIME
1. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault 1:12.738
2. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Renault 1:12.789
3. Juan Pablo Montoya Colombia McLaren-Mercedes 1:13.050
4. Kimi Raikkonen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 1:13.088
5. Jenson Button Britain BAR-Honda 1:13.186
6. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Ferrari 1:13.529
7. Antonio Pizzonia Brazil Williams-BMW 1:13.795
8. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 1:13.869
9. Ralf Schumacher Germany Toyota 1:13.908
10. Michael Schumacher Germany Ferrari 1:13.952
11. Takuma Sato Japan BAR-Honda 1:14.042
12. Christian Klien Austria Red Bull-Cosworth 1:14.051
13. Mark Webber Australia Williams-BMW 1:14.112
14. Felipe Massa Brazil Sauber-Petronas 1:14.255
15. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull-Cosworth 1:14.401
16. Jacques Villeneuve Canada Sauber-Petronas 1:14.479
17. Tiago Monteiro Portugal Jordan-Toyota 1:14.851
18. Narain Karthikeyan India Jordan-Toyota 1:15.252
19. Robert Doornbos Netherlands Minardi-Cosworth 1:15.772
20. Christijan Albers Netherlands Minardi-Cosworth 1:15.815

[Edited on 24/9/2005 by Minardus]

MarkIII

P18 and P20 in session 4, mixing it with Webber's williams.

The times are incredibly close- the whole grid was covered by under 2.7 seconds. Bridgestone's new tyres are working quite well here- the Jordans seem to like them. And Sato/Albers for 2006, but that's another story.

Jello_Biafra

Interlagos is notorius for bunching up the field.

As far as I know Bridgestone delayed the introduction of that tyre until Japan.

MarkIII

Well, whatever the case, you can now confirm that TOIT's F2005 car is relatively rubbish. Barrichello was 0.2 ahead of Montiero.

Montiero, to be fair, did put in the lap of his season there.

P18 and P20 then for the grid- I guess we still have a good amount of fuel on board I suppose.

Alonso pole, Raikkonen mistake, he's P5!

ThunderboltSeven

I sincerely hope that Red Bull capitulates and retains the Minardi name in some fashion with their new team...but if this season is where the Minardi legacy comes to an end, it would be fitting that our boy Fernando would become the youngest champion of all time.

I think that from the moment he stepped in the PS01, we all knew we had someone special on our hands. Give Paul his due here, he was absolutely correct when he said that he had unearthed a future world champion.

MCSF

TB7 - it was GCM who spotted FA first. I do not remember the exact quote but it went a little somethiing like this - he was being asked which driver in F1 was the next big thing.

GCM replied that the next big driver was not in F1 but in a lesser formula and his name was FA - and something to the effect of I already have hims signed.

Unfortunately GCM sold the rights to FA to Briatore......

Correct me if some of my facts are not 100% but I think I am pretty close.

MCSF

Man Faenza was sleepy - just got this PR concerning Saturday's events

HOPES REMAIN HIGH

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL, September 24, 2005 – Technical progress continued during the final two free practice sessions on Saturday morning for the Minardi F1 Team, drivers Christijan Albers and Robert Doornbos concentrating on further handling refinements to the PS05 chassis, as well as carrying out qualifying and race simulation work. When it came to the afternoon qualifying session, though, the two men experienced differing fortunes. Albers put in a solid run to record the 18th fastest time, while Doornbos lost out on a potentially good lap when he spun at Turn 12. The Faenza squad remains upbeat, however, about its chances in tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

CHRISTIJAN ALBERS Best lap: 1 min 14.763 secs Position: 18th
“I was happy to bring the car home in qualifying, as we had some oversteer in one or two of the quick corners that made it quite tricky. We actually set a good time today for this car considering our race strategy, so it looks positive for tomorrow.”

ROBERT DOORNBOS Best lap: No time Position: 20th
“From hero to zero – yesterday I was laughing, but today, nothing. I was driving on the limit in the qualifying run, and the car was a bit nervous because of the strategy we’re running tomorrow. As a result, I spun, and I’m sorry for the guys because they pushed really hard right up to the last minute in order to fix a problem they found with the gearbox. I couldn’t make the best of today, but we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

PAUL STODDART, Team Principal, Minardi Cosworth
“Today didn’t turn out quite the way we would have liked; however, we feel we have made the right choice regarding both fuel and tyres for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix, and we look forward to a better race.”

- Ends -


Chassis allocation – 2005 Brazilian GP
Doornbos (No 20) PS05/02
Albers (No 21) PS05/01
Spare car (Albers) PS05/03

Minardus

TB7 - it was GCM who spotted FA first. I do not remember the exact quote but it went a little somethiing like this - he was being asked which driver in F1 was the next big thing.

GCM replied that the next big driver was not in F1 but in a lesser formula and his name was FA - and something to the effect of I already have hims signed.

Unfortunately GCM sold the rights to FA to Briatore......

Correct me if some of my facts are not 100% but I think I am pretty close.

OK, a little amendment:

don't forget Adrian Campos in the picture.
He was Alonso's managerin those days and he is also an ex-Minardi driver.
A few weeks ago he was interviewed by Spanish F1coverage about Alonso's first F1 test in Jerez in 2000.

Campos spoke about GCM:

GCM said on the day of the test to Campos, BEFORE Alonso even drove 1 lap, that he would sign he up to drive alongside Gene like that without having seen him drive the car !!!!!
(Remember that was when Telefonica was still sponsoring the Team and Gene was supposed to stay another year) !!!!

When Alonso did his first laps in what was his first F1 experience GCM came to Campos very worried:
"Adrian tell him to slow down. This is a F1 car he's driving. He can't go that fast in a F1 car." !!!!!

Classic!
:cool: